Tidepooling

Some tide pools are easily accessible, some are not. These days, we go for easy.

 We love to go tidepooling. It has been a family habit since we moved back to the coast. People often ask me what tidepooling is and so here's a brief description. Where we live, the tide comes in twice and retreats twice in an approximate 25 hour period. On a rocky coastline, when the tide is out, the life that attaches to or lives among the rocks is either exposed to the air or left stranded in little "tidal pools." At extremely low tide, the tide pools become easily accessible and it provides an opportunity to see how and where these animals live.

A typical tide pool area.

 First, a few rules and recommendations:
1. Go at least an hour before low tide so that the tide is going out during much of your visit.
2. Keep your eyes on the ocean. There can be sneaker waves, or the tide can start coming in. Use caution. If you have not gone tidepooling before, it is good to go with someone who has done it before or to a place like Haystack Rock where there are a lot of people. Don't go way out on the rocks and get stranded. This does happen.
3. Set some guidelines with any kids beforehand. Ours with Toe are:
    a. In the ocean, only go up to your ankles unless a grown up is right with you. You can go up to  your knees in tide pools.
     b. You come when we call you and do what we ask the first time or tidepooling is over.
     c. Stay in our sight.
4. Respect that tide pools are home for wildlife. If you climb on rocks, climb in areas where there are few animals - walk on tough barnacles instead of soft anemones - just generally tread lightly.
5. Wear old clothes and tennis shoes and take towels and a change of clothes. You will get wet. If you are a cautious adult, you might get by with rain boots or hiking boots, but you definitely do NOT want to wear sandals. The rocks and barnacles can easily cut your feet.
6. Take a camera and binoculars. You never know what you might find or see. 

J and Toe are looking at the different zones in the intertidal area

 Tide pools are amazing for a number of reasons. First, that life can handle the extremes of being under water, being pelted by the surf, and then out in the open air is astonishing. Many animals in the intertidal zone actually need to go through that wet/dry cycle. Second, the more you look, the more you will see. There is life of every size, shape, and color in every nook and cranny. Creatures live crammed together, on top of each other, piled, stacked, and mashed. Third, it is an amazing opportunity to see predator/prey relationships up close. See the cute starfish? It is likely prying apart the mussel underneath it at this very moment (for lunch).  Also, many of the creatures in the intertidal zone look drastically different when they are under water than when they are exposed to air. Anemones are the prime example of this. When underwater, these beautiful creatures look like flowers. But when exposed to air, they close up. They look like lumpy, sandy, shell-covered doughnuts. You might not even recognize them as live creatures.

Over time, your eyes adapt to notice a variety of life. J can spot nudibranchs I would never see.

A sea star attached firmly to the rock, and likely having a lovely  mussel lunch.

If you climb on rocks, tread lightly, and hold on to your kid. It can be slippery!

Not sure if you can see these three anemones. The one on the left is open, the way it is under water. The two on the right are closed, the way you would see them exposed to the air.

Put kids in old tennis shoes, not boots. We were emptying the boots every 2 minutes.

 My favorite part of tidepooling is the fact that it is a multi-sensory experience. There are so many textures, smells, sights, and sounds while you are out there. The barnacles and mussels drying on the rocks make a skk skk skk noise... it is hard to describe. Like photos that can only caption one portion of a vast horizon, these photos can not do the experience justice. And now that Toe is old enough to really walk on his own, we plan to do it much more often.

Ooops! This one came out sideways. They are listening to the barnacles and mussels.

Oh yeah... Take snacks and water for afterwards. You will be hungry!

An Egg-straordinary Easter

This may have been the best Easter I can remember. The day before, the weather was warm and sunny, so Toe and I went into the back yard and re-potted some plants, played in the dirt, and had a picnic.

 That evening, Toe colored Easter eggs.

The spiral was mine. The rest were Toe's.

 The Easter Bunny came to our house and hid the eggs Toe had colored and left a lovely basket. When we went to our friends' house for brunch, we discovered that the Easter Bunny had been there too and had left eggs there for Toe to find among the daffodils. It was really wonderful. There, the bunny had left some decorated hard-boiled eggs and some candy-filled plastic ones. The plastic shells and real eggs went into the basket. The candy was stuffed into Toe's pockets until they could bulge no further.

 We had a wonderful brunch with M and R and then J went to work and the rest of us went out onto the lawn and played Bocce (which does have an Easter feel to it, when you think of it).  Then on to Mom's house for Easter part 3. Toe and Mom made "Bunny salads" - a real 1950's treat. A canned pear half on a bed of cottage cheese with marshmallow ears and tail and a maraschino cherry nose. Surrounded by jelly bellys. It was actually pretty tasty. Then Toe snuggled in and read stories with Mom.

 The weather was perfect, the adventures were age-appropriate, the company was delightful, it was a relaxing, happy day. Hope your Easter was as joyful (and Beck, sorry yours was really not this year...).

Ma-Wha?

Ok, so March was a complete wash for us. The afternoon of March 1, Toe came down with a 100 degree fever. His temp stayed over 100 for a week. Meanwhile, Jason and I got sick, too. Head colds, nothing major. However, as usual, the head cold traveled to Toe's chest and settled in. J and I got better. Toe's cough just wouldn't go away. We did three breathing treatments a day to keep his mucus moving through his lungs and did saline rinses in his nose daily (you can tell he was sick, because HE suggested it). We kept in touch with the CF clinic and finally we all decided it was time for antibiotics. Then a two week course of antibiotics. I don't know about other kids, but Toe on antibiotics is like Robin Williams at the height of his stand-up comedy years. Tons of energy and he does. not. stop. talking. Even more than normal. He sleeps poorly and is just wired the rest of the time.

Breathing treatment early in the month. He was asleep.

We hardly left the house. Pretty much we were limited to eating, breathing treatments, and a little play in-between. We watched so many animated movies, I can't remember them all. Toe was climbing the walls by the end and we were SO grateful when our return to two breathing treatments a day coincided with some lovely weather.

Needless to say, it was a long month for all of us and we are so delighted to have a healthy stint.